https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burial_(film)
This is Erin Brokovitch in the undertaking industry. Black and white. Good versus bad. A story of triumph we expect when the little guy fights corporate corruption that so rarely happens in real life (as this is purported to be) it becomes memorable.
The Set up.
Calvary of Love Baptist Church, Indiantown, Florida 1995. Will Gary (Jammie Lee Foxx) is bringing the Lord down. At first we think he’s a preacher. And he is in a way. A lawyer, some would call an ambulance chaser. He sticks it to the big man, the white man and makes him pay for the grief of the poor black man.
Kissimee, Florida (court). Clovis Tubbs v Finch & Co. Food Services. $75 million damages. No good Clovis might have been drunk, might have been depressed. He might have been all of these things. But he had himself a green light against Corporate America. Without Will Gary there would be no justice for the poor oppressed blacks of this world. Will Gary takes a cut of the damages. And he never loses. He makes enough to fly his own plane and give himself the kind of life he thinks he and his family deserve. He’s living proof of the American Dream.
Kurt Vonnegut of Slaughterhouse-Five reminds us:
‘Every other nations has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor.’
Jeremiah O’Keefe, aged 75, is rich in years and wisdom (he is Tommy Lee Jones after all) and his wife Annete O’Keefe (Pamela Reed) are having a little party at their grand home in Biloxi, Mississippi. He’s a funeral director, but has hit a bit of financial difficulties and has to sell off three of his funeral homes.
It’s worth quoting Jessica Mitford’s (1963) essay here on The American Way of Death.
Jessica Mitford was, of course, one of the Mitford girls. Privileged daughters of Lord and Lady Redesdale. Unity joined Hitler’s inner circle in Germany. Diana Mitford married British fascist leader Oswald Mosley. Jessica couldn’t therefore be taken as a Red. She’d know more about price and other kinds of gouching better than most.
She quotes from the a handbook used by funeral directors and successful businessmen such as Jeremiah O’Keefe.
[my italics]
A funeral is not an occasion for a display of cheapness. It is, in fact, an opportunity for a display of status symbols, which by bolstering family pride does much to assuage grief. A funeral is also an occasion when feelings of guilt and remorse are satisfied to a large extent by a fine funeral.
In other words a funeral is not a once in a lifetime opportunity. As the bad guy, Raymond Lowen, (of the Lowen Group) explains to Jeremiah O’Keefe and to the viewer, this was the Golden Era of death. When Baby Boomers meet their demise. 51 million Americans over the age of 65 were on their way out. Boom time for funeral directors.
Joseph O’Keefe is forced to sell parts of his business to meet financial demands by the Mississippi State Insurance Commission. He makes a contract with Raymond Loewen of The Loewen Group. But they do not follows through on their oral agreement to buy three funeral homes at the 1995 market rate. In other words, they behave like a big company with leverage. Like Trump that doesn’t pay for his lawyers until they sue his corporation.
The bridge between black and white is a young black lawyer, Hal Dockins (Mamoudou Athie). He suggests to O’Keefe, Loewen is intentionally trying to run O‘Keefe into bankruptcy. A common tactic used by Agrifeed industries to snatch farms from farmers. To snatch up bankrupt businesses at rock-bottom prices. A tactic used by estate agents globally. Capitalism in its usual form.
Hal Dockin represents the better self. American morality that rights all wrongs while whistling The Star Spangled Banner. Selling bullshit that doesn’t stink. But like all stories of injustice. All morality plays. We want the good guys to win. For once the black guy does, even though he’s white.
odonnellgrunting 